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Today is the last day of the kids school vacation and the last real day to take them ice fishing. Well, not really the last day to take them ice fishing, but it is the last day before 2013 to take them.

They have been going the rounds with the flu and Kenzie is the last (it appears) to have it. She is on the wait and see list as to whether she gets to go today or not. That will be up to her and her parents.

We are heading to Hyrum as we have gotten a hot tip from Shipley as to what and where the fish are biting. The ice is around 4 inches thick and that should be plenty to be safe. The weather over night was very cold with a 7 a.m. temp of 5 degrees…it should have made more ice during the night.

I’m really looking forward to the trip.

Brandon and I will be trying to keep up with four kids, so we probably won’t be doing much if any fishing ourselves.

Pictures and more will be posted when we get back.

After coming home, the kids will go to their homes and have supper and then all will come to Grandma and Grandpas for a sleep over! It will be a fun night.

Bears Butt

Dec. 31, 2012

Had a great time fishing. The weather was perfect. A very slight breeze some of the time, but most of the time just right. The ice could have been thicker as we only found it to be about 3 inches with a little slush on top of that. A bit scary for me.

But the fishing was excellent. All of us caught fish with an estimated 25 trout caught, 2 bass and 2 perch. Most of the trout were very small, like under 8 inches, but we did manage a couple pushing 16 inches. All of them went back into the lake.

The 2 perch did not have such a lucky time. We kept both of them. Addie caught the biggest perch and it measured in at just over 10 inches, but what made it so big was its girth. It had to be close to 10 inches around!!!

All of us caught at least one fish and most caught more than one. It was a great day to be on the ice.

This last picture was just as Conners fish spit the hook! Right at the ice hole! Dang it!

What a great day to be outside. Yes it was cold…like 15 degrees, but still a whole lot better than sitting inside watching a football game of something stupid like that! I can hardly wait to do it again!

We just checked the lottery numbers for last night’s Powerball and unfortunately none of our numbers came up. What does that mean? It means that we did not hit the lottery in 2012. That should not come as any surprise as most people do not win the lottery. We keep our hopes up for at least a token win on occasion.

Today is our day to renew our “subscription” and begin the next 10 draws with full faith that the balls will fly up the chute and show us our pick of numbers was the right ones…..ya right. But it also means the beginning of the drawings for 2013!

So, the lottery didn’t come through for us last year, but we are entering another new year and 2013 just has a ring about it that says it will be our year.

In addition to my dream of winning the big pot in the lottery, my dream goals for 2013 include drawing the Limited Entry Bull Elk tag for the San Juan late elk hunt, after all I have 3 points. Securing a turkey during the turkey hunt. Catching a lot of fish including trout, catfish, perch and bass. Bagging a muley buck during the muzz hunt (I missed two last season). And finally being a real help to the booshway at the Willow Creak Free Trappers Rendezvous this Labor Day!

My other goal, which is totally out of my control, much like the lottery, is to have the spammers who visit this site to quit coming around. I know they don’t read my postings as some of them are advertising handbags and such and post statement like..”I really love coming to your site and getting such valuable information that will help me with my life..blah blah blah”; And a posting like that is associated with my post titled WHAT IS WASSAILING???? or REDNECK LOGIC.

If they truly get anything out of my postings I would think of the two I mention here they would get the most out of Redneck Logic. Remember, “Do you own a lawnmower”?….”No”….”Then you are a queer”!

So, like I have said before, you still have today and tomorrow to get your goal done for 2012. In reality that is enough time to get quite a bit done.

Today is National Pepper Pot day. I had no idea what that even meant and so my search began. Come to find out a Pepper Pot is a spicy woman who would just as soon finish the plumbing job under the sink than to listen to men argue about how to do it.

For a woman to be called a Pepper Pot is actually a very large compliment.

On another note back when Washington was trying to figure out what to do about the British and his troops were freezing their butts off at Valley Forge they didn’t have a whole lot of food available. They resorted to eating everything they could find and one of those dishes contained tripe as the main meat.

I have never eaten tripe, but I suppose if I was starving it might just be a good thing to eat.

They put the tripe in a large pot, added water to cover it and started it boiling. Then they called everyone together and said “Hey dudes, if you want to eat something that will taste good, you best go gather up something to put in this pot of tripe”. Well, they could have said that, but it doesn’t matter because the troops came through with loads of vegetables they gathered from the local area. Potatoes, carrots, dried peas, parsnips…you name it…and it was cut up and put into the pot and boiled up. Lots of pepper was added because that was the main spice they had available.

As the pot simmered the soup became just like a stew and the men ate it with much enthusiasm, sopping up the juice with biscuits.

We all know the rest of the story as that soup was just the ticket to get them kick started and down they swept upon the British and kicked them out of the country.

My take on the soup theory was that it tasted good because that was all they had to eat. It made them so angry to have to resort to eating the cows stomach that they decided in order to get out of the fix they were in at Valley Forge they would have to go kick the British’s butts in order to find a better food supply. Which they did.

MMMMMM. For lunch today we had some of a plate of really good crab meat and home made dipping sauce…my friend Stein’s parents (also my friends) made the sauce and put the plate together as a gift for Christmas….Very YUMMY! That home made cocktail sauce made with home grown horse radish’s really hits the spot. I doesn’t get any better than that.

As we were eating, my mind got to wondering about artificial crab and how it’s made. Of course my good friend the internet was going to get involved later on in the day. Lucky for me the snow kept falling and I didn’t have to get out and shovel or plow snow. Sorry neighbors…you will have to wait until tomorrow to get shoveled out.

Back at the internet I looked up the key words “artificial crab”…man there is a lot on there about that. I was very surprised to find just how it is made and what it is made out of. Someone many years ago told me it was made from real fish and I believed him and sure enough it is…for the most part.

For you Gluten Free people…you better stop eating it right now and find a source with gluten free ingredients because the main manufacturers of it don’t care about your well being. It’s just fish…you say? Well that is part of what you are eating. The rest is not fish.

So what is in the crab like stuff that flakes apart and tastes so very good?

Sugar, sorbitol, wheat or tapioca starch, egg whites, and vegetable or soybean oil . Natural and artificial crab flavorings are added, and some of these flavorings are made from real crab or from boiled shells. Carmine, caramel, paprika, and annatto extract are often used to make the crab’s red, orange, or pink coloring.

BOILED SHELLS???? Ok if you say so.

I went in search of some more information about the making of the artificial crab that I really like to eat. I found where a guy had put together 9 facts you need to know about this, but before you read too much further the artificial crab meat is made from an ancient process called “Surimi” in Japan:

1. Surimi is a Japanese word that literally means “ground meat”.

2. To make surimi, the lean meat from white fleshed fish such as pollock is pulverized into a thick paste. The gelatinous paste can then be combined with various additives to become fake crab, fake lobster, and whatnot.

3. The assortment of additives may include other fish products, but it is usually egg whites, oils, salt, starches, and spices.

4. Here is the ingredient list for a fake crab product called Trans Ocean Crab Classic:

You can see that it is a highly processed food product, with MSG and an assortment of starches and gums to create the expected texture.

5. Food manufacturers love Surimi because it enables them to take cheap fish and upgrade it to a taste and mouth feel of the most expensive fish meats – crab and lobster. (I wonder if you could make it from carp?…just askin)

6. Approximately 2% of the world’s fish catch is processed into some sort of surimi paste.

7. Nutritionally, surimi is low in fat, but usually very high in sodium. In the product example above, a serving of 2 fake legs contains 480mg of sodium (20% of the daily max)

8. Surimi does have some protein due to the fish and egg content. But nothing to write home about. The above product has 6 grams of protein for a 3 ounce serving. Tuna has 30 grams. Lentils have 20. Cheese has 30 grams.

9. Surimi is cheap – you’ll pay 20-30 cents per ounce. Canned salmon or tuna are usually 50-60 cents per ounce. Real crab and lobster are much more expensive.

Well if it didn’t taste so dang good I would probably quit eating it right now, but it is good and a very good thing I didn’t know what I know today or I would probably not have tried it in the first place.

Now, you have to see the video I found on the process. I really wondered how they got the red involved in the meat and make it look just like a real crab leg meal laying there on my plate. The originator of it must have really had a smug look on his face as he watched plate full after plate full being devoured by crab eating connoisseurs.

I have lived my entire life thinking that some day…some day I will get in on a ground floor “thing” that would make millions and millions of dollars and I would be able to quit my job and do nothing but anything I wanted for the rest of my life!

No worries, no cares…the bank would be calling me constantly saying my account was over the FDIC limit and that I would have to open another account in another name or move the money to another banking institution.

AHHHHH!

But after 63 years it has not come to fruition! What have I done wrong? Why was I not in the right place at the right time? My idea of a knife to gut a deer was stolen, from the very bar, the night I drew it on a napkin and showed it to two strangers sitting there…suddenly before I could show the draft to the legal office at the Air Force Base in Wiesbaden Germany, they informed me the very same draft had been filed on for a knife to be called “The Wyoming Knife”! Drat…I was close on that one.

But now! I have stumbled upon another deal…this one is aimed at the video game people and even though I do not personally play these types of games it is being laid at my feet and I am being asked to “help them out”. This one could go places and quickly I might add. I am sharing this with you just in case you too have been thinking along the same lines I have all my life. Good luck with your decision…I know what I’m going to do.

My lovely wife Sherry bought me a wonderful little rifle for Christmas. What a sweet heart she is. You will be hearing a LOT about this little weapon in the future as the Weasel also got one for his Christmas.

We have plans to go out hunting and we will have our videographer Windy along to capture it all on video.

First we have to do some sighting in and ballistics calculations to make sure we have enough gun for the game we intend to pursue. We don’t want to have too much gun, but in dangerous situations it’s always best to make sure you have enough gun and that is why we need to do some practice shooting to determine.

I took mine out this afternoon and killed my first game with it. Actually my first shot took out a big boar Calliphoridae. My second shot missed a brightly colored Trivittata, but the third shot took him out like a sling shot on a street light. My fourth shot knocked another Trivittata flat out, but then I had closed the distance for that shot quite a bit, he didn’t even know I was in the same county, and that was with open sights mind you.

I’m quickly learning my distance limitations with my new rifle, what with the open sights and all. But believe me even though the trigger pull is a little stiff, it is still quite smooth. I’ll post up some stats on that as soon as I get my digital trigger pull scale out of the box. Along with that I will be setting up my high speed HD camera to capture the muzzle blast and impact on a gelatin block.

In the mean time the Weasel is practicing up on his calling skills and setting blocks of decoys out. We aren’t going to waste these great days sitting idle while we wait for the weather to change. We are taking every advantage we can to prepare ourselves, our weapons and our gear to be able to bag as many as we can before they put limits on just how many we can bag, what types of ammo we can use and how many bullets we can have in our magazines at any one time. I’m convinced it is only a matter of time before “they” put laws up to restrict the projectiles we can use, impose game bag limits, shooting hours etc. Until they do, we are in hot pursuit.

I’ll keep you posted on our progress and you will see any video on here long before it goes viral on Youtube.

Watching the snow fall this Christmas Eve and waiting for the time when I need to leave to go pick Sherry up from her work, I started searching the ever knowledgeable internet. Sometime or another I had heard the word “Wassle”, be it in a song or in a school play or somewhere else. I had no idea what was meant by “wassle” and so on to the internet.

There are a couple of ways to “wassle” and I’m sure given enough time there will be more ways.

In it’s simplest form I understand that “wassailing” is a form of forcing yourself upon someone for refreshments. Drinks and food in the day. It seemed that the servants (peasants) of the richer folks in the areas would break into their masters homes and demand food and drink and if he did not provide it to them they would ramsack his place. Sounds like Trick or Treating doesn’t it? These folks seemed to think the master owed them more than he was paying and so this was considered a legal and binding thing to do each year.

They would gather in smallish groups and head down the road singing and dancing and just plain merry making…sort of like our own “going around” that we have traditionally done for the last 40 or so years. But, unlike the past ancestors of Old time England/Germany/Wales/Switzerland or where ever, we would never think to trash a home that did not provide us with food and good drink.

Here we come a-wassailing
Among the leaves so green,
Here we come a wandering,
So fairly to be seen.
Here we come a-wandering
So fairly to be seen.

Chorus
Love and joy come to you,
And to you our wassail too,
God bless you and send you,
A Happy New Year,
God send you a Happy New Year.

We are not daily beggars,
That beg from door to door,
But we are neighbours children,
That you´ve seen before.
We are neighbors’ children,
That you´ve seen before.

I wonder what a thief breaking into your home would think if you suddenly began giving him sandwiches and beer. NAH! Give him what he deserves, a fast flying chunk of lead.

There is always at least another side to every story and so Wassailing has one as well and like I said earlier, there could be more than the two I mention here and surely in the future there will be other spins put upon it.

The wassailing went into the orchards and the farmers fields. An old time traditional drink was one made of apple cider and it was heated for the occasion and just like our own rendezvous, someone came in with a twist (apple pie comes to mind), and added cinnamon and slices of lemon and lime. The kick came from fermenting it before the big night and now I have heard that the kick needs a bit more added and they pour in rum/vodka and assorted other mixes to make sure the wassailers don’t stay awake too long.

The songs of the orchards had phrases that lead one to believe they were singing to assist the trees to make lots more apples for next years harvest for without apples you would not be able to have a very large bowl of good old punch. A prayer to the apple Gods!

Christmas and the holidays is always a special time of year. We think and act on helping others this time of year and we really should do that throughout the year. But this is a special time, always has and always will.

I think about our military being away from their homes, family and friends and can’t help but reflect on my own time when I was away doing what they are now. Different place, same time, same issues.

We had our mission and that kept us busy, but when we had some down time thoughts of home swelled each of us with the memories and the “what are they doing at home” thoughts. We would sit around drinking our drinks and telling our personal home stories.

One thing I recall was that it didn’t matter what the person’s background was, it didn’t matter what their religious beliefs were, it didn’t matter whether they liked other guys or girls or if they were attracted to the opposite sex, it didn’t matter if they were 18 years old or 50 years old, it didn’t matter if they had been in a lot of trouble in their past, it didn’t matter if they didn’t have many friends…each one had their favorite remembrance of Christmas and what they or their family did to celebrate the Birth Of Christ.

Some were so poor they only received gifts that were either hand me downs or hand made. And those guys were the most grateful when and if they received a new pair of shoes. Most grew up in average families with lots of friends and plenty to eat. The stories were always interesting and very telling about America and the way we have all been brought up to care.

None of the guys in my “outfit” had much money and I guess that was one reason they were there in the first place. We were sort of a family of misfits, each with our own way of doing things and we became pretty good friends.

I wish each and every one of our soldiers, no matter where they are in the world a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year….2013 is going to be a very good year for us all!

If you are like me you will go through a pair of hip waders or chest waders about every three or so years. In the past, if the lower portions of the boots are still good and don’t leak, I will cut off the top part of the boot and save the lower portions for sloshing around in ankle deep water or snow or maybe for irrigating. They are really handy for doing those sorts of things.

Well last year my brother had a pair of hip boots go bad on him and I asked if I could have them. He has bigger feet than I do and I thought maybe the foot portion of my boots would go inside the foot portion of his boots. I’ll tell you why.

Last ice fishing season caught me off guard. When it finally came on it was very clear ice and very slick ice as well. Fall down slick as a matter of fact and as I age I can’t afford to be falling. So during the season I broke out the pocket book and bought a pair of ice gripping slip on things that stretch and go over my winter boots. They work wonders. But, if I didn’t have the kind of cash to lay out for that kind of thing I would have been SOL if you know what I mean.

So, with my brothers old boots, I cut the bottom of the foot part off with ice cleats in mind.

Today I saw where one of the local lakes was frozen enough that people were out on it fishing! YEEEHAAAAA! But again it is that very slick, no snow on top of ice and here again ice spikes of some sort are going to be a necessary item.

Back home I pulled out the old cut off boots and went to work.

I’m a scrounger most of the time and I had saved up some of those nylon straps that have a male and a female end to them and when you want to tie something down or wrap something up, you need a good strap to do it. I figured those straps would be just the ticket for strapping some old boot bottoms to the bottoms of my ice fishing winter boots.

I first cut some strap width slits in strategic spots on each side of each of the boot bottoms (feet). See the picture.

Notice how the slits are cut where the boot is reinforced? That should give them some strength and afford them to last a few seasons. The strap on the toe end will go across the toe of the winter boot, while the one in the middle will actually go around behind the back of the winter boot.

Once I had both of the feet loaded with the straps, I cut the straps off to accommodate winter boots of various sizes and/or tightness’ of how the straps are going to be hooked down to the winter boot. If you take on this task to make your own be sure and leave some slack in the strap inside the foot so that the bottom of the winter boots can set right on top of the inside of the foot.

Finally, I drilled some regular old grabber screws straight down through the bottom of the foot and out the bottom. After all something has to grip the ice right? Today I only had 1 1/2 inch screws and they seem to be too long. I’ll change them to one inch before I actually use them, but for this story I had to show you.

The longer screws actually look like they will work in the heal portion just fine, it’s the front ones that will need to be replaced.

Now let’s examine some of the details and I’ll explain why I did what I did.

The strap that will go around the back of the Winter Boot is placed higher than the one at the toe. That is to allow the winter boot some movement in the foot even though the strap itself is resting right on top of the inside of the foot. The toe strap is cut right at the inside of the foot so that the winter boot will set right on top of it and the bottom of the foot at the same time. Notice too I cut the foot with two little tabs at the back side. Those are to facilitate pulling up on the foot, making it easier to get over the winter boot.

Number of screws? Well this is still in the experimental stage, but I put three in the heal and 5 in the toe area. My thoughts are that when you step out on the ice, your heal will hit first and you don’t want a whole bunch of screw points hitting the ice which might cause you to actually slip worse. And with slipping in mind, you don’t want too few screw points in contact with the ice at the front of the foot, as you extent your stride and cause your rearward foot to slip backward. I intentionally put one screw in the middle and forward of the other four screws in the toe end.

So, without actually testing these on real ice, I think they are going to work just fine. I hope to get out and try them just after Christmas, like next Wednesday. I’ll post up the results positive or negative. As I was putting them together I thought of other positive things about these cleats. The biggest thing I thought of was that they will offer another layer between the bottom of my foot and the cold ice underneath. It should help to keep my feet a little warmer.

No alarm was set last night because…..well because there wasn’t supposed to be a sun this morning. I recently read where (supposedly) NASA had predicted a three day/night of darkness as the universe was aligning to block the sun light from hitting the earth. Pretty wild imagination by someone.

And as usual, the hoaxters really went out on a good long limb with that one.

Meanwhile some 2,000 years before Christ, the Myans were looking up and one of them decided that the earth was born through an opening in the Milky Way, a hole among all those stars. They must have been up all night eating peyote buttons and drinking weird juices because whenever I look up at the Milky Way there isn’t any possible hole in and among all those stars. What if the Myans would have had computers and the internet?

We live in a great time, where we can share information at the drop of a hat, better yet at the drop of a key stroke (hit enter). It is a great time but people can abuse it quickly and they often do.

I like to scan the internet to find strange things that people are doing. And trust me with this one, they are trying all sorts of strange things. Even making stuff up and going to great lengths to get us to believe them…fire starting using an orange is one…..and since I fell for that one I do a whole lot of investigating before I post up on here about it.

I have to tell you another story, completely un-related.

I just bought myself a Christmas present, a new digital camera. This little baby is just what I have needed for a long time. It is dust proof, crush proof, drop resistant (proof to 5 ft) and water tight. It can be used to take pictures underwater down to 40 ft.! I will not be swimming that deep, but I plan on taking some pictures underwater with it.

On the dream hunt it got a little dusty at times and my old camera, which is a good one I might add, started sounding a bit like a gravel crusher when I zoomed in on something. So this new little guy will do me well. I have needed a camera that can take the abuse I give out. It even came with a life jacket in case I drop it out of the boat.

It can take pictures out to infinity, just like every camera can, but it can also focus on something as close as 1 centimeter! That is right on the deck, trust me! I shot a picture of the back of my hand and then cropped the picture and you can see that I could use some hand lotion.

I’m just kidding of course, men don’t use hand lotion.

Pentax Optio WG2, 16 mp, 5X zoom and it even takes HD movies! Works down to 14 degrees F. too, so you will see it out on the ice! I’m pretty excited.

So, I’m actually very glad that the world didn’t end yesterday, I have some pictures to take.